Comma Separated Value

A Comma Separated Value (CSV) is a file format that is used to save data values from Grid Displays or Data Records.  The format uses a separate Line for each Data Row or Record.  Individual data values are separated by commas, and Text Style values may be surrounded by double quotes.  The usual file extension for this type of data file is '.csv'.  These files can usually be opened by Excel, though as this format does not implicitly maintain the 'data type' of each cell value (unlike .xls) there may be some mis-match in the display of values when the data is loaded in the target Application.  Generally the processing of CSV files is far quicker than the more complex .xls file format and this format is recommended when handling very large Data Grids and Datasets.